15 Jul 2021

The Zebras have been knocked out of the COSAFA Cup tournament.

This followed a one-all draw with eSwatini in a game played at Isaac Wolfson Stadium on Wednesday.

The Zebras bowed out of the tournament after playing four games; winning one, drawing one and losing two, hence accumulating four points.

 Botswana lost 0-1 to Bafana Bafana of South Africa, then beat Lesotho 4-0 and lost 1-2 against Zambia. 

Despite failing to proceed to the next stage of the tournament, some football pundits have hailed the Zebras for playing entertaining football and fighting against teams whose players were active prior to the tournament.

Zebras went to the tournament  following more than 15 months of no competitive football due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coach, Letang Kgengwenyane, said in an interview that they had failed to achieve their objectives being to improve their position from the previous COSAFA and to give Zebras players exposure as well as to lay a foundation for the future team.

 Kgengwenyane said playing in the COSAFA Cup tournament helped to shape teams for the forthcoming tournaments, amongst them AFCON and World Cup qualifiers.

The coach also said COSAFA was one of the toughest tournaments to compete in since it was congested and needed good preparation. 

He said the team started its preparations well as the association managed to assemble it well on time, but the preparations were disturbed by some challenges, which affected training sessions and programmes.

Kgengwenyane said the challenges might have affected the players psychologically.

He, however, said some of the countries they were competing with had congratulated the players for their fighting spirit.

“All in all I am happy my players left an inedible mark in the competition and I will not be shocked if a lot of players from this team sign new contracts with foreign teams,” he said. Ends